Tag Archives: WWE

Has Ronda Rousey made a real impact on WWE? What about Rousey’s impact on WWE’s flagship pay-per-view, Wrestlemania?

One of the ways to understand this is by looking at Rousey’s impact on betting. I asked international betting expert, Jim Murphy,if Rousey has had an impact on betting for this year’s Wrestlemania.

Negligible if any. The WWE might be trying to change course on how they’re promoting her midstream. She cut a promo last week that wasn’t really good. They had originally scheduled her for every RAW until Wrestlemania but that plan has changed. She was originally announced for last night’s RAW but wasn’t there and they showed a video of her instead. Meanwhile, she was on the ‘Ellen’ show this morning.

Here’s what I’m thinking–they’re going to keep her out of situations where she has to ‘cut a promo’. They can show her training in the gym and she looks like a badass. I’ve always thought she does well in the talk show format but doing a scripted pro wrestling promo is a different deal entirely. Besides, she can open up promotional channels that no one else on the roster is able to (eg: talk shows like ‘Ellen’). They’ll likely have Stephanie McMahon bury her in promos on RAW for the next two weeks. She’s scheduled for the final pre-Wrestlemania episode of RAW.

Otherwise–it’s still a little early for significant betting on Wrestlemania 3 1/2 weeks out and it’ll definitely be an afterthought until after the first weekend of ‘March Madness’. The WWE hasn’t really gone into top gear promotionally for Wrestlemania and it might end up being that Rousey doesn’t draw the mainstream interest they thought she would. She hasn’t produced any ratings bump in her TV appearances so far. There’s not really a ‘buzzworthy’ match on the card so far. AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura is a big deal among hardcore fans but not really in the mainstream. They’ve been teasing a John Cena vs. Undertaker matchup and that might end up being the biggest match on the card.